Our cry for justice and truth

Lately I've really noticed how much Christians scream out for justice and truth. Whenever there's an issue that deals with an injustice that seems to be occurring, Christians and churches get really worked up about it. I'm not saying that's wrong. In fact, often I'm quite proud that we are advocating for victims or those that are denied the liberties that most of us take for granted.

On the same token, we get worked up about things that seem to be against our understanding of truth. Again, I'm not saying that's bad. In a world that denies the idea of right and wrong, who will be the prophet if it's not us? But sometimes I think the world knows us more for what we stand AGAINST rather than the things that we stand FOR.

But there's a real fascination these days in the churches for this stuff and I guess I wonder why.

When I think about my relationship with God, I am not standing before Him screaming for justice. My prayers for myself are much more for mercy and grace than anything else. In fact, I'm really glad God doesn't lambaste me with truth and justice. God is gentle with me. Grace and mercy.

the coffee hangout experience

As a staff, we've been talking about having a third worship alternative for a long time. Each time we do, there is always talk around it being in a coffee shop. Why? Because it's something that everyone knows about....

So here's a few random observations...

-people think they are talking privately. In the hour I've been sitting here, I've heard people talking about relationship/marital issues, work issues and just general comments about themselves that I'm SURE they would never say elsewhere. I'm not trying to eavesdrop either. I could be across the room and deaf and still hear what they are saying. What does that tell me? 1) Coffee shops are the place that people experience care and community. 2) I need to talk quieter.

-Coffee is expensive here but everyone buys it. I had a square and a medium coffee. $5. (I always tip because as Christians, I think we need to be known for being generous not stingy but that's another blog topic) Some people come here every day. So in a month, that's a $100 coffee budget IF it's only once a day. Why do people pay what they could pay for a whole pound of coffee at the store? Because they pay for the atmosphere. It's the daytime equivalent of going to a pub. Or the adult equivalent of 7-11 or the arcade when I was a teen. I pay $5 and I can stay here and people watch all day if I want. $5 for a cup of coffee and a square is a rip off but $5 for an activity is dirt cheap. What does that tell me? Content is important but how the content is packaged and presented is even more important these days.

-There's no dress code or 'way you need to be' to come here. There's two guys in the corner wearing suits. In the booth over, two guys wearing jeans and hats are playing chess. Two moms wearing sweatpants with kids are here as well. And then there's scruffy me with my holiday beard (yes that's what the 'dirt' is on my chin - I'm Asian - give me a break.). But there's no heirarchy or pecking order here. We're all treated the same and more importantly, we all 'feel' the same. That's an important part of the coffee culture because every place has a different feel and the feeling you belong is important. The teaching here for me? Coffee shops do naturally what churches work at forever trying to achieve.

We're doing our java worship experience in mid January. We'll see whether we can have a redemptive coffee experience. Actually, that's not stated right. We'll see whether the coffee shop can redeem many of our church experiences.

evangelical debate

It's pretty fair to say that people don't really care about denominations anymore. Definitely the vast majority of the world doesn't. They hardly notice the difference between a Christian and another religeon let alone all the differences BETWEEN Christians. But even among the church leadership, the divisions between denominations is shrinking. The ministerial here has some good collegiality between the Baptists, Alliance, Anglicans, Pentacostals and us. Needless to say, I'm thankful for that. But there is a divide within our church that seems to be growing - almost as quick as the denominational one is shrinking. The evangelicals or conservatives vs the liberals.

To define it isn't that simple but basically, the evangelicals/conservatives would hold to a traditional, orthodox theology and they would believe that the world needs to be saved through accepting Jesus as Lord and Savior. Liberals have a much more social action oriented faith rather than a "accept Jesus in your heart" one and hold Scripture as allegorical and metaphorical rather than God's inspired word. Within the Presbyterian Church (and all the other mainline denominations), there's a wide diversity along the spectrum.

To survive within our denomination, you need to learn to be politically correct in certain situations. Sometimes that is very difficult - particularly when the pervading theology is vastly different from your own. What makes it harder though is how quickly our church likes to label and dismiss others as useless because of their theology. It's probably fair to say that we treat people that are on the opposite theological viewpoint much worse than those from other faiths or no faith at all. In many cases, it crosses from prejudicial into hatred.

Make no mistake - I'm an evangelical. The longer I'm in this denomination, the more I'm comfortable with that. But that's not to say that us evangelicals have it all right. Most evangelicals talk too much and live too little. We're overly judgemental and too rigid. Both liberals and evangelicals need to learn from each other and just for once, live in humility under God to trust that God will judge as God judges. Let's just let each other be who we are - standing up for the things we're passionate about WITHOUT putting the other person down for having a point of view different than our own.

Keeping it real

It's been a long time since I've blogged here because...well....i got blogged out from the summer. Random thoughts cross my head all the time but one of the tougher parts of being a pastor is that there are few things that really 'belong' to you. I'll read something and my first thought is, "how can I incorporate that into the ministry at St. A's?" God will teach me something and before I know it, it's off my tongue in a sermon. So part of my discipline this fall was to try and keep some stuff between God and I - to develop some depth to my walk with God. Church ministry is unique in that the work I'm called to do there is directly related to my personal relationship to God. If I'm not growing and staying close, the work suffers. Item 1 on my job description as a pastor is to continue cultivating my personal relationship with God. If I stop growing and sincerely TRYING to live what I'm saying, I hope I quit before I get fired.

But here's the irony. My relationship with God isn't a job. It's a marriage relationship that needs to be as personal and intimate as my relationship with Kathleen. Some things in my Christian life need to be kept between God and I. Maybe at some point, it'll be a sermon illustration, but for now, it's just for us to share. In order for me to reach maturity in Christ, I need to let God's word seep deeply into my heart - not so I can be a better pastor - but so I can be a better disciple, a better person, a better child of God.

Our measure in God's eyes isn't dependent on how well we measure on our job evaluations but how we measure on our faithfulness evaluation. My 'job' is no different. To borrow language from 1 Cor 13....If I preach a thousand great sermons and build a ministry with millions in it but haven't a relationship with God, I'm nothing.

retreats

I think if Jesus were here today, he would be a camp person. He loved crowds sometimes, a certain few more often and sometimes, he would just go away by himself. That's camp. A bit of everything. It's been special this week being up there doing what we feel to be God's work in presenting the gospel in worship. I've been moved to tears almost everytime I sing "how can i keep from singing" because it is just so much how i feel being up there.

Does your life have the same balance? Time with others - including believers and unbelievers? With the intimate few you truly INVEST yourself with? Do you have time by yourself to nurture your own listening prayer life with God? Sometimes the noise has to stop in order for our spiritual lives to start.

Blog about blogging

It's hard to blog about the news when I have no idea what is happening in the news. Being at camp all week this week (with exception to Thursday night which I'll be coming back for the last one!), I've been out of the loop. The year that Wayne Gretzky got traded from Edmonton, I was at camp and didn't even hear about that until a week later! I could blog all about stuff at camp but the connection point for you wouldn't be the same.

That 'disconnect' I'm describing is one of the biggest issues that I think faces Christians today. We're out of the loop. Somewhere, we've interpreted being of the world but not in the world as taking a critical backseat to everything that the world offers - and maybe more importantly, a criticism of the people within it. Healthy criticism is a good thing - as in just being reflective and analytical about what we're taking in and being a part of. But when we just make running commentary on the world and people while having no connection - no relationship - with them, we've immediately lost our audience.

Imagine if Paris Hilton decided to write a book criticizing the inner workings of the church. We'd be in a rage because she couldn't possibly know anything about what us Christians believe! Let alone her lifestyle! It's NOTHING like it should be. She hasn't earned the right to say anything!

That's kinda how those in the world feel about us I think. I know that we live by the truth and we can't possibly adopt the lifestyle of the world just to communicate to it. But we can't hide behind that either. Jesus diedto save the world. Maybe it's time we start to love it the same.

Healthy wealthy and wise gospel

The 'prosperity gospel' is what we call the teaching that God wants us to be healthy, wealthy and wise - AND that our ability to attain these things depends on how we pray or the measure of our faith and spiritual growth. This teaching has been around for a long time but has found new legs in recent days. The Secret (which I wrote about a couple days ago) is the most popular mainstream version of it. Perhaps The Prayer of Jabez could be considered the most common Christian version of it.

Often quoted with this is Jn 10:10, "I have come that you might have life and have it in abundance." While even a quick reading of John 10 will show that the 'prosperity gospel' is far from the context of this verse, it should be very true that God desires the best for us. What Father doesn't want the best for his kids? What does Christ's death and resurrection mean for us today? Doesn't it mean we'll have victory? Success? It seems to make sense.

But then Jesus teaches weird stuff. Luke 6:20 and following reads...

"Blessed are you who are poor for your is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who hunger now for you will be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh.
Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude and insult you anhd reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man."

"But woe to you who are rich.....who are well fed now.....who laugh now...when all men speak well of you....."

Maybe our prayers are off base?

Catching up with Science

Almost everywhere these days, there are ads to correct, enhance or supplement the way we are. The vitamin supplement industry is a multi billion dollar enterprise. Almost everyone knows someone within their circle of friends that has had either some kind of 'enhancement' surgery - whether it is cosmetic or corrective (as with laser eyes).

So here's the question. Because we can. Is that a good reason for us to do something?

Is there a line to be drawn as far as what we are willing to do to 'improve' our lives? Most of the time, we leave it up to the individuals concerned. If it makes them feel better about themselves, then why not? But what about the way that God made us? Didn't God make us in His image? Did moles come out after the fall? Should convenience be a good reason for us to mess with something as delicate as our eyes? Do we medicate ourselves for everything just because it's out there and we can?

Those that know me will know that I'm all for the latest fad. I'm not proposing we go back to the Stone Ages. But maybe, we do need to slow down so our theology can catch up with our science.

The Secret

Back in February, Oprah featured a show about The Secret. What is The SecretÉ It is defined as the law of attraction that states that like attracts like. The concept says that the energy you put into the world - both good and bad - is exactly what comes back to you. This means you create the circumstances of your life with the choices you make every day. (from oprah.com)
Basically a spinoff idea from the concept of karma, The Secret has made itself popular by giving people the ultimate self-help formula. The better the energy you put into the universe, the better your circumstances.

It`s all fine and good for someone that is wealthy and rich to pat themselves on the back thinking that they somehow deserve their fortune because of their positive energy giving but I have a hard time imagining a rape victim reading this concept. Who`s going to tell them that they deserve what they gotÉ

It`s part of human nature to try to make life predictable. We want to stereotype people so we can somehow understand and predict what they might be like. We compartmentalize ourselves so that there`s order and predictability to our lives. Deep within us, we want to believe that if we do the right things, say the right things and avoid the wrong people, we`ll be successful, healthy and wise. Our concept of justice demands the opposite for those that do otherwise.

But the true secret isn`t a secret at all. It`s written in the only book the world wants to reject as old and antiquated. Humans, in the image of God, are given free choice. Because of the sin of one man passed down, we are all sinners. That sin perverts the free choice given by God so that some can use it for destruction and brokenness. There isn`t rhyme or reason to most of the anguish in the world. The reality is that it is just there. Waiting for Christ to come back and redeem it once and for all. It won`t happen because of anything we do with our energy or otherwise. It happens because God said it would.

Fast cities?

Last year when we had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong to visit family, we noticed something that we hadn't anticipated. Wherever we went, there was no place to sit. Whether it was the shopping mall or on the street or in an amusement park like Disneyland, there were hardly any benches, coffee shops or other places to just sit and rest for a short while. But after watching people for a while, it became very apparent that people native to that city weren't looking to sit either. The culture in Hong Kong moves very, very fast. There are no people just walking in Hong Kong. Everyone is walking somewhere - and judging from the pace, you'd think everyone was late for an appointment. No time to sit and rest.

Contrast that to west coast Canadians. In Victoria, there are over 150 coffee shops specializing in serving up the stuff. That's not taking into consideration the gas stations, restaurants and other places that also serve it on the side. If you walk anywhere around here, you can't hardly walk 10 steps without bumping into a bench or other place to sit and rest. That alone should tell us something about what we value here as compared to other parts of the world.

made in China

Mattel made a HUGE recall of a couple million toys yesterday after finding out that their products - mostly made in China - were faulty and hazardous to young children. Many if not most of the merchandise that we use in our everyday lives here in North America comes from eastern sources - India, China, and other parts of Asia. In a global economy where profits are the #1 priority, it is important to keep manufacturing costs at a minimum so that a company can make money while still keeping their price competitive.

Undoubtedly, this toy recall will spark new legislation about needing new regulations around imported items particularly from China. The exporting industry from China will undoubtedly change and eventually, the cost of products here will increase as companies must now find other - likely more expensive - places to purchase their materials.

It's alarming to me that with all the talk surrounding this issue, it seems to predominantly focussed around us. OUR costs will increase. OUR safety needs to be the number one concern.

What about the widespread exploitation happening in these countries in order that production costs can be kept at a minimum? In Canada, we have no idea what working environments these countries have in order for us to have our luxuries. Very likely, not one of us would work their long hours in the dark, musty dungeons even if we were paid ten times what they made an hour.
What about the global human cost? What about THEIR safety?

And what a global economy does to us here in Canada - where we have regulated safe working conditions and rules around our labor - is that local small businesses cannot compete with their prices. It's visible everywhere that the big box stores open up. The small competition folds up around them.

It's not only up to the government to stop this from happening. Ultimately the reason that these practices continue is because we hold the value that cheapest is best. We don't care where it comes from or how it came to be. If we started buying from the local people trying to support their families with their small business, we become related to what we consume. And ultimately, isn't that what God wants to teach us?

Caring for the poor

Affordable rental housing in BC is in a crisis mode and has been for some time now. With average and median housing prices in Duncan nearing 350k (Victoria over 500k and Vancouver nearly 700k), there has never been a more crucial time for our government to make opportunities for affordable housing alternatives. Let's say for example that someone wanted to buy an 'average' house in the Valley. Using $300000, let's assume that they managed somehow to save up the $15000 5% down payment. After the CMHC insurance, lawyer and other fees, they take a mortgage out for $295000. At a 6.5% interest rate over 25 years, that would make payments of around $2000/month. Add to that property taxes and heating each month and it's probably in the range of around $2300/month. The ratio that the bank allows for total housing costs is 32% of your gross monthly income. So doing the math, if you need $2300 a month, you must gross nearly $7200/month in order to comfortably make those payments. That is a household income of $86000 / year to start and live in a house right now here in Duncan.

It's safe to say that you need to be rich to live in BC these days (and arguably most of Canada). If you add to these figures the cost of living in terms of transportation, food, utilities, and education (which is around $5000/year right now at UVIC just for tuition alone), it's clear that BC has become a luxury province where the rich are getting richer only for the poor to get poorer.

In OT Israel, there was a concept of Sabbath, Sabbatical and Jubilee. Among many things, they were designed to help the poor. Being an agricultural/agrarian people, they relied heavily on the weather and land for their living. It was quite common for a particular tribe to have a 'tough year' or two because of one reason or another. But regardless of what happened, everyone knew that every 7th year, the land would grow wild. While this was good for the land, that was only one of the reasons for Sabbatical. It was also so that the poor could eat!
And every 40 years was Jubilee. During the 40 years, land would change hands and certain tribes may become indebted to each other because of rough luck etc. But at the 40 year mark, everything went back to its original owners. That meant no one could be in debt more than one generation!

The way we're going out here, it's become impossible to get a 'leg up' anymore. The latest figures I saw in the Cairnsmore area had the average individual income at just around $25000/year. If you assume two working people in the home both working full time and making the average (not taking child care into consideration either), that is still $36000 short to own an average home right now.

It's more than luck to live here right now. Is that how God would want it?

A change of pace

Blogging every day is a weird experience. Like anything, some days are rich with ideas and content, while other days there is hardly anything that wets the appetite for comment and discussion. Tuesday mornings are especially tough. Today is Tuesday.
Rather than the normal commentary/discussion starter, I thought I'd take the opportunity just to comment on work itself this summer.

For those that haven't heard the Thursday night spiel, the coffee house/blogging idea is an experiment that I've never seen anywhere before but has been milling around in my head for a long time now. Most people in the world (Christian or not) learn their theology from their life experiences and then 'put' it onto God. Left on our own, that almost always results in some weird ideas about God. Most Christians that attend church and Bible studies learn their theology from their Bibles and then apply it into their lives. That usually results in a bit better thoelogy but sometimes the life application is tough and we struggle with how to deal with certain issues we encounter but aren't dealt with explicitly in Scripture (or from the pulpit on Sunday at least). The blog/coffee house idea was an opportunity to hopefully put those two things together. The early church was successful in part because it had handles in the culture and knew the climate of the world it was speaking into. The church today isn't so much a place that the North American church disagrees with. It simply isn't relevant.

So have we succeeded? The dialogue has started and that's good. But even if it ends at the end of the summer, it shouldn't end. The Bible is full of people that wrestled with God. Church history is full of people that wrestled together with God. If we're to become relevant again, we need to learn to wrestle better - with each other and with God.

Fireworks

Once again, to everyone that came to Java last night, thanks for your discussion and for being willing to be vulnerable in sharing yourself with others. That is never easy but others are richer for it. So thanks to all.

If you live in the city your whole life, you never really get to see stars. The visual noise of the city lights drowns out anything natural in the heavens. If you want to impress a city person, name a constellation in the sky - nothing fancy - just any one and they're likely to label you their "astronomer" friend.

This weekend, the annual Perseid meteor shower will be hitting in our evening skies and supposedly it's a good year to see it. God's natural symphony of fire (or Symphony Splash if you are from around here). Go outside and get spoiled by what God has made for us to enjoy and share. See what we can learn about God through His handiwork. There's something intrinsically worshipful about being in God's Creation and witnessing what He has made.

"The heavens declare the glory of the Lord."

Integrity?

If you've ever known anyone trying to get into the RCMP, you'll know how rigorous their screening is. Lie detectors and interview upon interview. Some people I know that would make great cops don't get in simply because they either gave information they probably should've left out or they didn't give information that the lie detector picked up.

It's absolutely appauling that this mountie in Vancouver keeps his job with 12 days less pay for being so unruly. In case you've missed the story, he drove with 2x the legal limit, threw a rock at a bus and verbally attacked the driver, and had a known criminal as a friend (that had picked up a undercover police officer posing as a prostitute and brought her back to his house).
The argument goes that he can still do his job and his personal life off the clock is something different. If that's the case, then why the rigorous screening?

Bill Clinton probably opened the door to this in the most public way back in the Monica Lewinsky days. Gordon Campbell pleaded the same case in the drinking driving scandal. And people in public and private life do it all the time.

When does a person's personal integrity start to mean something? We cannot be people that say one thing and do another. Add to that, people in authority. Teachers, doctors, pastors, RCMP officers, parents, grandparents, elders - basically anyone with authority - should gain and lose respect not just by how they teach but also how they LIVE. 1 and 2 Timothy and Titus talk to pastors about this but it's everyone! "Do as I say but not as I do" shouldn't cut it.

well before their time

Dying is a part of living. It happens to everyone and there really isn't anything wrong with it. Our lives here on Earth are finite and we've been given a relatively short time to leave the world a better place than we found it. Society doesn't like to talk about death - and some cultures have taken it out of their vocabulary entirely for fear that it will bring it on sooner - but truthfully, we would probably be better off if we did. It would take some of the fear away and very likely would help us all to LIVE better - since our death bed is probably the clearest vantage point of our lives lived thus far. We could all learn from that.

However, there is something insiduous and wrong when someone dies before they really even get started living. Our grandparents are supposed to die before us. And so are our parents. As difficult as those things are, it is the natural order of things. But when our children die before we do, there is something very un-right about that. It is hard to feel anything but part of our lives, part of our world has been robbed from us. 'The thief has come to steal and kill and destroy...." and it seems that he has.

These two young UVIC students that died in the house fire early yesterday morning were taken long before their time. Just entering the prime of their lives shouldn't be the time that they die in something as unnoble as a house fire in the middle of the night while they are sleeping. Everyone that knew them commented on how great their potential was and it is not a stretch to say that the world would be a much better place with them in it. That isn't to mention the personal impact - two dads will never walk the aisle to give their daughters away, two boyfriends will never get to see if this relationship will turn into marriage, two communities and families are ripped apart.

There are no answers to this kind of situation. Nothing that we can say to the families and friends that will even begin to answer the deepest questions they have. Only God through His Holy Spirit can do that. It is something unbloggable.

The only thing that I offer here is for us the living that stand arms length to this story but whose hearts are gripped because each time this happens, we relive those past tragedies in our own lives. There is a second part to the 'thief' passage I wrote above. The WHOLE verse reads 'the thief has come to steal and kill and destroy. BUT I HAVE COME THAT YOU MIGHT HAVE LIFE AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY."

Does sex sell food?

We've all been to those restaurants or pubs where the waitresses are wearing short skirts, low cut tops and flirt their way into the wallets of their customers. In the past, it was generally assumed that it was up to the individual waiters/waitresses how they dressed as long as it complied with their color policies. Today, in some places, those policies include a minimum height at which the skirt needs to be above the knees and how high your heels need to be on your shoes. These restaurants also happen to be among the favorites of the teens and young adults today.

Sex has sold everything for some time now. You can't watch a TV show or even go to a grocery store without it being right there in your face. Modelling has never been as prevalent as it is today and being able to show sensuality is key to being successful.

The argument goes that those that have it, should flaunt it. If someone was really friendly, shouldn't they use that to chat people up to get a better job or bigger tips? Then why shouldn't someone (guy or girl) that is attractive and has an attractive figure use that as well? They are catering to their strengths. Who doesn't like to be waited on by an attractive man or woman?

The TC article has a strong bias to its reporting. As does all of us that are reading this blog too I'm sure. So I'm going to leave it at this. What's wrong with it? Does the onus lie with us not to look lustfully at a man/woman? Or do we need to do more as a society/culture?

Long weekend break

Thank you to all that came out to Java last night. Sorry if it was different than expected. I wasn't sure what to expect myself. We'll be back to the usual next week!

I'm taking a break for the long weekend so I'm not expecting to blog again until Tuesday. Enjoy the weekend! See you next week.

It's all the same. Part 1.

I'm going to change speeds here for a second and blog about something other than the newspaper because it's something that I think we all grapple with and it has been a part of my reality this week during a visit with someone that was dying.

What do we do with the whole idea of other faiths? We know what the Pope thinks! But with the growing number of people that are believing in 'every religeon is the same' and/or the 'there's no such thing as hell only heaven', how are we as Christians to respond? Some of the people saying these things know a lot more than we do, so do we just accept it and move on?

I was talking to someone a while back about these ideas and basically their assertion was that God judges us only on what we know. We don't have to actually accept Jesus. We just have to NOT DENY Him. If all we know is Islam, then God judges us according to how we live up to what we know of Him through that religeon. And if we know nothing, then we go to heaven because we've never had the opportunity to accept (or deny) him.

So if that is the case, then why do evangelism? Why share our faith? If that was the case, It's the greatest disservice we could do to actually make people accountable by giving them opportunity to choose. We'd be better off not saying anything because then God couldn't judge them for what they didn't know.

I'm not saying that this topic is as cut and dry and simple as some people make it out to be. Ultimately, only God is the judge. But it's also not as vague as most of us wish it was.

We're a bunch of softies.

The news has been talking a lot lately about how soft we are as a country - lax security everywhere, criminals getting off easy, people stealing their way into our country etc.
One politicians reply was that Canadians are not Americans. We don't live with an underlying sense of fear and self-protection. Underneath our skin is trust and grace. (my paraphrase from what I remember)

Grace should never be misunderstood with being a pushover. Being gracious and trusting doesn't mean that we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of. There are always going to be criminals that will look for ways to manipulate the system to their gain and our response as individuals and as a society needs to be one of justice and stern discipline.

Grace is defined as 'unmerited favor'. Meaning getting something we don't deserve. The only way that that works is if there is an enforcable standard in place to show what you DO deserve. For example, if someone steals something and we just turn a blind eye to it, that's not grace. If we know that everyone that steals goes to jail but to one person, the judge extends mercy and says that they don't need to go, that is grace.

The reason we know God is gracious is because His law and His standard are clear and strict. Without it, we'd never know that God was gracious. God would be a pushover! So Romans 6!

So Canada, stop being so nice. Tighten up your laws. It's only then we can be gracious.